Social cognition and the manic defense: Attributions, selective attention,and self-schema in bipolar affective disorder

Manic patients, depressed bipolar patients, and normal controls were compar ed on measures of social cognition. Manic patients showed a normal self-ser ving bias on the Attributional Style Questionnaire, but depressed patients attributed negative events more than positive events to self. On an implici t test of attributional style, both patient groups attributed negative even ts more than positive events to self. Both patient groups showed slowed col or naming for depression-related but not euphoria-related words. Manic pati ents, like normal controls, endorsed mainly positive words as true of self but, like the depressed patients, recalled mainly negative words. Findings from the implicit tests indicate a common form of psychological organizatio n in manic and depressed patients, whereas the contrasts between the scores on the implicit and explicit measures are consistent with the hypothesis o f a manic defense.